"You have suffered, at times unjustly, but that suffering is at an end. I cannot promise that I will avenge you or your kin, but if the time ever comes that I must face Nemesis, then I shall keep you in mind," Hadrian proclaimed, his voice a steady anchor in the dark.
"My own suffering means nothing to me, only the unimaginable pain I have caused," Mother Rhoyne wept softly. "You will face Nemesis, Hadrian, for he is reviving himself. Once he has fully returned, this world will be pushed towards death once more. It hangs by a frayed thread as it is."
Hadrian nodded grimly at her warning, his emerald eyes dark as he considered his own actions for the future.
"I should warn you not to ascend to godhood, for the world shall reject you then, pushing you into a divine domain. So long as you remain a Godling, you shall stay in the mortal realm. You will be weaker, but you will have far more opportunities to stifle Nemesis," Mother Rhoyne cautioned gently.
"I can never become a god. I would have to give up far too much to be one," Hadrian answered wryly.
"Then perhaps you are the greatest shield this world will have against death," Mother Rhoyne spoke, her ethereal voice suddenly laced with a fragile, desperate hope.
"Perhaps," Hadrian answered cryptically. "Now, tell me how to dispel the mist, or at the very least, how to navigate and leave it."
Mother Rhoyne straightened at his words. "You must kill me, and in the moment of my death, the Taint will have no control; it will attempt to climb onto you. If you survive that moment, then the mist will lose control as Nemesis tries to rein it in without my divine mana. If you can purify the mist in that moment, then it shall cease to exist."
"I understand. How do I kill you?" Hadrian asked bluntly.
Mother Rhoyne gave no reaction to his bluntness. "Killing a god is not easy. You will need to sever the connection they have to the world. This can be done by either massacring a large number of their followers in a short time span, or by destroying their physical manifestation at the time of their descent into the mortal realm. You need to erase me with your mana—destroy this physical form."
"I destroyed a god when he manifested, but that did not completely kill him. He returned fully within a few years," Hadrian expressed his doubt while cautiously dissecting Mother Rhoyne's explanation.
"That is because you allowed his consciousness to return to the divine realm. If you anchor their consciousness to the mortal realm and then destroy their manifestation, you have essentially captured a god. Destroying the consciousness is extremely hard. It can take years or even decades, but so long as they are anchored, they are unable to do anything else without a physical host," Mother Rhoyne answered, placating Hadrian's doubts.
Hadrian, however, had a gleam in his emerald eyes as he understood how he had unknowingly used this very method to kill Akua. So my hypothesis was right.
"I shall need to make some preparations before we begin. You can hold out for some time, can you not?" Hadrian asked.
Mother Rhoyne shook her head. "There is little time left, and Zahken may not be able to continue fighting until you are ready. We must proceed as fast as we can."
Hadrian could hear the harsh battle still continuing at the gates of the ruined city. Zahken had not given up, and he would not for some time yet. "I have a way to end this cleanly, but without time to prepare, it will be disastrous. I will not risk the chance of this failing, so you must bear with me."
Mother Rhoyne did not speak, but that was consent enough for Hadrian. He turned and ran immediately, Hermione following close behind him.
Hadrian stopped abruptly just inside the inner sanctum. "We need to make a Purification Runic Circle. You remember how to make it?" he asked, his tone leaving no room for error.
Hermione nodded sharply, her mind instantly recalling the complex arrays.
"Good. Then I will start from the outlines around the temple, and you start with the centre around Rhoyne."
Hermione nodded again before dropping to her knees. With a focused pulse of magic, she summoned the necessary materials from her enchanted ring—silver chalk, crushed crystals, and heavy carving styluses.
Hadrian wasted no time. He moved with blinding, inhuman speed, darting to the outermost edges of the ruined temple. He gripped his goblin-steel broadsword, using the razor-sharp tip to carve deep into the bedrock. Sparks flew as he tore through the ancient stone, rapidly carving intricate patterns at an impossible pace. Massive circles intertwined with complex polyhedrons, each geometric shape perfectly symmetrical despite his speed. Within the borders of the shapes, he meticulously etched strings of ancient, forgotten languages, the runes pulsing faintly with his latent magic as they were formed.
In the centre of the temple, Hermione worked with equal ferocity. She arranged the crushed stones and began carving the anchoring runes directly into the dais around Mother Rhoyne's bound form. The goddess, despite her agony and the encroaching Taint, watched the young witch with profound curiosity. The precise, calculated magic of these mortals was entirely alien to the divine essence she knew.
"The ambient mana is too corrupted here," Hadrian called out, his voice echoing over the scraping of stone. "We need a stronger anchor!"
Without hesitation, Hadrian dragged the sharp edge of his blade across his own palm. Bright red blood welled up, and he pressed his hand to the primary runic node, smearing the blood into the carved stone. The runes instantly hissed, flaring from a dull grey to a blinding crimson.
Hermione saw the flare and understood. She drew her gladius, slicing a shallow, clean line across her forearm. She let her blood drip directly onto the central array surrounding Mother Rhoyne. The moment her blood touched the silver chalk, the runic circle snapped to life, humming with potent energy that forcefully began to push the suffocating mist back from the temple.
"You are far too resilient for your age child." Mother Rhoyne spoke while staring at Hermione's bleeding arm.